THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES OF SCIENCES, ENGINEERING, AND MEDICINE
Transportation Research Board
Truck Size and Weight Limits Research Plan Committee
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Congressional Briefing
Thu, Feb 14, 2019
192 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg. – 3:00 p.m.
on
Research to Support Evaluation of Truck Size and Weight Regulations
This new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine presents a research plan to reduce the major sources of uncertainty in projections of the consequences of proposed changes in truck size and weight limits. The report defines a program of 27 coordinated research projects in six areas.
The report acknowledges that improvements in models for projecting impacts of changes in truck size and weight limits, while necessary, will not guarantee the success of future truck size and weight policy studies. Future studies will be useful as guides for decisions only if policy objectives and practical policy options are clearly defined, the analysis is logically structured to reveal the most promising policies, and uncertainties are properly characterized.
This is the committee’s second and final report. It’s
first report, issued in April 2018, summarized the research recommendations of past truck size and weight limit studies and identified criteria for deciding the priority of topics for inclusion in the research plan.